GYC Conference 2022: Break Forth

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Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

Plenary

Andrew Park

The Deception of Knowledge

I'm so thankful that each 1 of you once again have decided to be here.

I'm sure it's been a financial commitment, a commitment of time, a commitment of energy to be sitting in this seat and we don't take it for granted that you've made the decision to be here tonight.

My name is Andrew, and I have the privilege of serving as the president of GUIC.

I recently became a pastor in Michigan about a year and a half ago.

And as I think about tonight, as I mentioned before in the welcoming, we're coming upon 20 years of GYC's existence.

From 2002, if we can remember that far back, all the way to 2022.

And as we embark on our next few days together on this 20-year anniversary, I want to share this.

About, I don't know the exact time, but 4 or 5 months ago, there was a member of the executive committee who reached out to me and she said, I felt impressed that we need to start praying more.

And she was in contact with another team member who also independently felt the same impression that we need to start praying more, maybe even daily.

And before both of them reached out to me, I had the same impression.

We need to be spending more time in prayer lifting up this conference.

And so for the past number of months, We've been praying every single day.

Some days, you know, things happen, but every single day we have been lifting up you.

Even though we may not know all of you, we've been lifting you up, lifting up this conference, lifting up the speakers, lifting up every detail so that the Holy Spirit can be the 1 who directs everything and not the will of man.

As we open up our convention tonight, Please bow your heads with me as we ask God to bless our time in his word, as we ask him to bless our next few days together, and also as we ask him to open up our hearts that we can be open to His leading.

Father in heaven, according to 2 Peter 1.4, you say, you give us exceeding great and precious promises that we might be partakers of the divine nature, Or we have no power of ourselves, but I want to claim the promise of Jeremiah 1 4, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth.

Use me, Lord, may you be the 1 to give the power of this message, and may your Holy Spirit open up each of our minds to speak to our experience this evening.

Thank you for hearing this prayer according to the promise of 1 John 5, 14.

This is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us.

And if we know He hears us whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him.

Thank you, Jesus, for taking this prayer to the Father, and we pray this all in His name.

If you don't mind, I wanted to share a little bit about my life this evening.

I was born and raised in the suburbs of Michigan.

I grew up understanding the value of good grades and good behavior.

Grew up living a very conventional good life.

By that I mean, my parents provided everything that I needed, they took me to church, they raised me with many privileges that I didn't realize they were privileges until much later in life, And I realized those people, a lot of people don't have the same privileges that I had.

That's what I mean by a conventional good life.

But even though I grew up in a religious home, I lived my life half in the church and half in the world.

You may know people who's lived their life half in the church, half in the world.

We may have people sitting here tonight that's living their life half in the church and half in the world.

And this was probably influenced by the structure of my life because I went to public school during the week and then I went to church on the weekends.

Church was a social place for me because I could see my friends that I didn't get to hang out with during the week.

And it was also a duty because it was ingrained into my mind by my parents that going to church is how you honor God.

But Despite church being all of these things for me, I still didn't have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

Go to church, It's a duty, social life to some extent, but yet you don't have your own personal relationship.

I had a few revival experiences in my life during my adolescent years when I would attend Christian retreats and Christian camps, but ultimately there was no meaningful change in my spiritual life.

When I was in high school, despite all of my years of going to church, I had a mindset where I genuinely thought it was impossible to be a real Christian.

I literally thought it was impossible because all around me were examples of friends who went to church just like me and during the week they lived a normal life like everyone else.

There really was no marked distinction between Christians and non-Christians other than the fact that you go to church on the weekends and you pray before meals.

That was the only distinction that I actually saw.

You know, the picture that I had of Christianity, in all honesty, contemporary Christianity, it made me cringe a little bit.

You do all the things of the world, but not to the full extent of the world.

You listen to Christian music that sounds like the world, but it's about God.

You don't swear, but you watch movies that have swear words.

You don't drink or go too crazy, but you do go to parties.

This weird experience where you're living a life in between 2 worlds.

Not fully part of 1, not fully part of the other, and so you're mediocre in both.

And honestly, I believe that I felt this way about my own experience because Went to church on The weekends went to public school during the week now I do want to make a disclaimer that I didn't feel like I lived in this purgatory world because I wasn't willing to do all the things of the world.

But it was more so because of the church commitment that I had to go to Friday night and Saturday that kept me from doing all the things that my friends in school were doing.

Despite this logistical challenge, you might think this was a good challenge, but despite this logistical challenge of church, unfortunately it didn't stop me from getting into drugs.

And in high school, especially my junior and my senior years, I got to a point in my life where I didn't really like being sober.

My freshman and sophomore years, I loved to get high.

I had a lot of friends that I smoked with, did it socially, but after a couple of years and experimenting a little bit more, I came to a point where I just didn't want to be sober.

1 is an excitement of an experience to come.

And the other is a dread of being by yourself without the support of a substance.

There's actually a vivid memory that I have during my summer vacation of my junior year in high school.

It was 2012 and I remember it pretty vividly.

I had No car, no friends to hang out with that day, and it's in the middle of summer break.

And this was a pretty torturous experience for a high schooler who wants to be cool and yet has no 1 to hang out with.

So being in this terrible situation of being home alone with no car, no friends, I decided, you know what, I'm going to change the trajectory of my day.

So I managed to get a hold of a certain medicine, legal medicine, that I like to abuse.

And after consuming significantly more than the recommended dosage, about 45 minutes later, I found myself in a different world, so to speak, that the abuse of this medicine had created for me.

So now, 45 minutes later, here I am, home alone, no car, summer break, nothing to do, but at least I'm tripping.

So I crawled into bed and I went on YouTube.

And I wanted to look for a certain trippy movie that I could watch to entertain myself while I was high.

Honestly, I was really looking forward to it.

Got the whole day to myself, just me and my bed on YouTube.

And as I searched for this particular trippy movie, I couldn't find the movie for free.

So being the cheap high schooler I was, I said, you know, I'm abandoning the search of the trippy movie and now I've got to find something else to do.

Then I can't find the movie that I'm looking for, so I'm sad again.

And now, I'm in this predicament, this disappointment.

I'm afraid I'm going to waste the rest of my high.

What popped into my mind next, I can't tell you why, okay?

I can't tell you why, but I'll describe what happened.

Had my mouse on the YouTube search bar, thinking, contemplating, what am I going to type in?

Justin Kim

Israel Ramos

Jonathan Walter

Sabbath School: All Things New

Most gracious Father in Heaven, we ask that you hear the prayers that ascend from this hall.

And may they not just be mere prayers, but we pray that these prayers may be answered and be made manifest, these answers, into the very difficult parts of the world.

We pray for China, India, the Middle East.

We pray for reached and unreached areas of Latin America and Africa.

Father, we ask that you have special mercy upon the developed areas of North America and Europe.

We ask that you fight against post-modernity and atheism in the developed parts of Australia and of East Asia.

Father, we ask as we now open the Bible, that as we have the comforts of religious liberty and freedom, that you inspire our hearts continually for mission service, for evangelism in our local areas, and to get deeper in your word through the ministry that's espoused by Sabbath School.

Sabbath school is all about mission and Bible study and prayer and about fellowship So we're here to have a good time and so glad that you're with us this morning If you have your Bibles, please turn to 2nd Peter 2nd Peter chapter 3 verse 3 We are using the adult Bible study guide the adult Bible Study Guide and Inverse kind of overlap.

We're looking at Revelations 21 and 22, but for a introductory verse, we're gonna go to 2 Peter 3, verse 13.

And Sebastian, can you read that verse for us?

I've been listening to the Illuminate World app and listening to your voice and and Callie's voice, read Spirit of Prophecy, 1 of the best apps out there, I love it, and I fall in love with your voice.

So please read 2 Peter chapter 3 verse 13.

The Bible reads, Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.

So, this week is entitled All Things New.

So, I just want to open this up, and I wanted to wait until the end, but I won't wait until I'm up to bring up the first question, all right?

All right, we're Christians, the majority of us here, I think, are Seventh-day Adventists, there'll be some friends and cousins here who are not, and you're still welcome, we love you very much.

We talk about the Christian hope, we're going to heaven, and Revelation 21 and 22.

Like it's an odd 2 chapters, we're going to go to heaven, golden cities, you know, grapes the size of watermelons, and hanging out and playing with dolphins, all these things.

In some way, that kind of sounds a little, I don't know what the right word is.

Pocky-dokey, fruity, too futuristic, too lollipoppy, and whatnot.

And in verse 13 here We're talking about the promise the hope the future of heaven Make that real for us guys How do we connect the study on heaven and the new earth and all these things.

But today in 2022, when there's Russia, Ukraine going on, we're coming out of a pandemic, there's the Pope just died, the former Pope just died.

There's all these real time things going on, connect this.

Sebastian, you're nodding your head aggressively.

Yeah, I think when we look at the hope, and it can feel very far away when we simply look at it in isolation, But when you think about all the problems in this world, and you think about the issues that we have to face and deal with, you wonder if we're ever going to get it right.

Can you look to charity organizations to address these things?

And 80% of the world doesn't have access to clean water.

So it's like, well, when is this basic stuff going to change, let alone learn to be kind to your neighbor or to be unselfish in a church board meeting?

So when you think about these things, the hope that this tells us is that sometimes you just need something completely new.

I don't know if you've ever broken anything and you just are like, maybe I can tinker with it, maybe I can tweak it, but you just can't fix it.

And I think when we think about the blessed hope of a new heavens and a new earth, God is telling us, listen, there is nothing you can enact in a policy, in a legislature, in a philosophy that's going to fix this.

And the world just needs to be made new all over again.

Second Peter gives us kind of a context, I think, to a little bit of what we're talking about.

First of all when you look at the introduction of the epistle it seems as though Peter is speaking to a church that is going through similar things or has at least the right to be asking similar questions.

Similar things and similar questions to what?

You're dealing with, first of all, the religious world in the time of Peter is collapsing.

Even within the church you have false prophets that are arising.

All of these different things are happening and in chapter 3, there even, you know, he's talking about the very things that you just brought up.

It says that people will arise and they will say, you know, where's the promise of his coming?

For since our fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were.

And then in verse 7, he says something that really struck me as Sebastian was talking.

It says, but the heavens and the earth which are now by the same word are kept in store reserved unto judgment.

And so what Peter kind of does is he's giving us, or the Word of God, it gives us an insight to the fact that as horrible as the situation in which we now live is, even this current situation, even though we seem to be hanging in many ways, we seem to be hanging by a thread that's about to rip at any point, that thread is held together by the Word of God.

And so the Word of God kind of gives us 2 pictures.

Number 1, it gives us the assurance that this world that we live in is put together, held together, God's people are held together by His Word, and there is a time that God will come and bring deliverance to the world from all these things.

He's waiting for God's people to be serious about their relationship with Him and to do the work.

And that's why the world is where it's at today, because God's church in how it lives and in what it does is not representing the will of God.

You know the verse in verse 13 that we read, it talks about how in this new heavens and new earth, it will be a place where righteousness dwells.

And I think this is something that is extremely relevant for today's world.

While CGI and AI art and all these things can produce visually incredible pictures that depict whatever science fiction, futuristic outlook you have.

When you read the Bible and you read about, you know, the buildings of the new earth and all the things, you might think, oh well, sounds kind of crazy.

But What heaven boils down to when it comes, the essence of heaven is righteousness.

It is something, an experience that we do not experience in this world very much.

And to me, The glimpse of heaven that we have now is when I'm with fellow brothers and sisters, and I experience the righteousness of God in our lives.

I experience the grace and love of God flowing from heart to heart.

But the world does not know these things.

And the relevance of this for us today is that we need to bring this to the world, not just in preaching, but in living it out as we've been hearing throughout this conference, living out the righteousness of Jesus to other people.

Yes, we can talk about the geography of heaven and the foundations of the New Jerusalem and all of that, the stadia and all that stuff.

But at the end of the day, what they really need is what's going to happen inside the New Jerusalem.

That's not something we have to wait for.

That hope of heaven, that quality of eternal life is today.

So I know we're sitting at this table, we're in front of GYC, this is GYC, we're on cameras, and we're Christians, we're Adventists, we have this hope.

What's the role of hope in practical Christianity?

Is that just something, I hope to go to heaven someday.

Sam Walters

The Flip Side of Service

It's a privilege to be here, it's an honor to be here on the 20th anniversary of GYC.

I mean, the program, I mean, I'll be honest with you, Whoever's in charge of logistics, may God continue to bless you because your talents are on another level.

We thank you for everything you've done for us.

We're claiming the promise of Luke 11 verse 13, which says, if ye then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?

Dear Lord, we're asking, Please fulfill your promises.

I feel like if you trace your life and your spiritual journey and your experience, that there will be moments that you can pinpoint certain times in your experience and on your journey and on your faith walk where you know for sure, for definite, for certain that God was speaking to you and got you to make a specific decision at that time.

For me, there's plenty of those, plenty of them.

Oh, by the way, wasn't the special music great?

The special musics have been—this has nothing to do with the sermon.

Whoever's, I don't know if there's an album coming out, but keep that up.

Anyway, There'll be times in your life that you can pinpoint where you can see that God has moved in your journey, you can see that God has moved in your life, and you know that He's caused you to make certain decisions.

An example for me, even though I've got loads, A specific example for me was when I was about 20 years old.

My friend, who was also studying at the same university, for some reason, didn't have accommodation.

And so, you know, you needed a place to stay, you can stay at mine, that's no problem.

So he was there for a few weeks and then he had placement and then I think he came back.

I can't remember exactly how it went, but for the few weeks that he was there, at that time, it had a deep impact on my life.

I was a young person, he was a young person, we were both Seventh-day Adventists, and I watched this young guy every morning get up, he'd go, he'd grab some water, he went off to the gym, came back, and when he came back, He spent some time in devotion.

He had breakfast, then he made it to his 9 a.m.

I watched this young man start making his way through the conflict of the ages series.

Patriarchs and Prophets, Prophets and Kings, Desires of Ages, Acts of the Apostles, Great Controversy.

I saw this man making his way through the series and it had a profound effect on me.

In fact, I think I can pinpoint that experience as the inspiration for me going through the conflict of the 80s series myself, if that makes sense.

But in the process of me serving Him, the flip side of service is that I was changed in the process.

We've been looking at Isaiah 58 all this week.

To loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke.

Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house?

When thou seest the naked, that thou cover him, and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh." Here, there's a call from God to help people who need help.

He makes a requirement of His children, His followers, those that claim to love Him, that you also need to love others.

The call from Isaiah 58 is a call primarily to love.

Now I'm a university lecturer, so what we're doing here is we're building.

If you don't catch these parts, you may not understand the next parts.

So just make sure you're taking in what I'm saying right now.

The call to serve in this passage is a call to love.

All Christian service actually springs from 3 words found in 1 John chapter 4 verse 8, which is God is love.

It's not like Jesus was up there in heaven somewhere and said, I need to get some people to do some service.

But actually, God came down from heaven, came down in human form and became a baby and became an adult and got down and washed human beings' feet.

And as he washed them, in John chapter 13 verse 15, he says to his disciples, I have given you an example that you should do as I have done to you.

Matthew chapter 22, verses 37 to 39, Jesus summarizes the 10 Commandments by telling His followers to love God supremely and to love their neighbors as themselves.

I Had a friend that was coming back to Wolverhampton, where I live in England.

They'll never forgive me, I've just remembered something.

I'd like to bring you greetings from my home church, Swensfield Sunday Adventist Church, Wolverhampton.

Shall I let them know that you're saying hello back to them?

Right, so my friend was coming home to Wolverhampton on the train, and whilst he was on the train, he saw his friend's son being bullied by some other youths.

And as he stepped in, he intervened, sorted the situation out, got his friend's son to come and sit next to him.

And then when the train journey was finished, he brought the son to his father.

Now we're talking about the call to serve is a call to love.

My friend wasn't the only person on the train, but my friend was the person that stepped in.

I suppose other people should have stepped in because of a sense of duty, Because it's not nice to see other people being picked on.

But there was a deeper motivation than simply a sense of duty that moved my friend to step in in that particular scenario.

And so because of his relationship with the father, that then extended into how he treated the father's child.

Series

Plenary

Arise, Go

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

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The Flip Side of Service

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